It’s quite possible that no one knows hamburgers better than George Motz, the founder of New York City’s luncheonette-style Hamburger America and self-proclaimed burger scholar. Even before opening his love letter to burgers in New York City, Motz was infatuated: He directed a documentary about burgers in America in 2004; hosted a television series on the Travel Channel called Burger Land; and has written two books about the history of burgers in the United States. Simply put, his fantasy of owning his own burger joint has been a long time coming.
The burgers at Hamburger America, however, are not meant to be flashy or loaded with toppings. You will not find fried eggs, slices of avocado, or crumbled blue cheese here. Instead, Motz wants his burgers to serve as a history lesson, showcasing what burgers were really like when they were first invented between the late 1800s and early 1900s.
There are only three burgers on the menu. Motz’s fried onion burger is a tribute to Oklahoma, and features onions cooked in the burger’s rendered beef fat and a slice of American cheese. “Beforer there was ketchup and mustard and everything else, onions were the first condiment,” Motz explains as showers shaved onions over the sizzling beef. “It’s almost like candy.”
The second burger, a classic smash burger, is inspired by burger slingers of the Midwest who would set up shop outside of factories and speedily make as many burgers as possible. “The smash method only came about for speed,” Motz says. The smash burger, “smashed all the way,” as Motz says, is topped with diced onion, mustard, and two dill pickle chips. As the burger is frying, Motz stacks the potato buns over the melting cheese and meat to ensure the beefy steam can rise and soften, and flavor, the buns.
The last burger on Motz’s menu is constantly rotating. Using his knowledge of burger regionality throughout the U.S., Motz selects a new burger each month and tries to recreate it as closely as possible to the original. The burger can be anything — a steamed cheeseburger beloved in New England; a loaded burger from Dallas, Texas; or, the Doodleburger from New Haven, Connecticut, which features white American cheese, a single slice of tomato, onions, and a side of red relish.
“It’s been my life mission to make sure that people appreciate the American hamburger on a much more complex, deeper level,” Motz says. “There’s a lot more to the origin stories of these burgers.”
Watch the latest episode of Icons: Burgers to learn more about the making of these historical burgers.
